


Driving Away

by Sith-likejedi (slytherinsdaughter)



Series: A long Road to Home [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Slavery, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, not as dark as it sounds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-27
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-09-20 07:07:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9480497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slytherinsdaughter/pseuds/Sith-likejedi
Summary: Anakin and Shmi have lived with Watto for a long time.Watto had owned them for a long time too.But Watto sold them on - and that man isn't as nice as Watto.





	

“Mama?“ He asked as his mother clutched him to her. 

She shushed him and he quieted down, realising something was wrong. Was it a gang raid? It couldn’t have been. Watto paid the Hutts on time, this time – and he wasn’t scared like the last time. Watto was always grumpy when they couldn’t do work, but he didn’t scowl when he pushed them here – he smiled.

They stood in one of the backrooms of Watto’s shop - they had both been ushered here and told to be quiet. 

Anakin shifted on one foot to another. Being told to hide never had good consequences - he still had the scars from the last time. Looking at his mama, he could see she was worried. Shmi rested a hand on Anakin’s shoulder and gently squeezed. There was no noise coming from the front of the shop – nothing loud at least, like gunshots.  She knelt down on the hard concrete floor and wrapped her son in a warm hug. He clutched her, scared. 

The door was flung open and hit the wall with a bang. The middle aged man glowered down his nose at them. He pointed a grubby finger at them both.

"Out.” Watto sneered. 

Shmi elegantly stood and did what Watto ordered. Hiding her discomfort, she squeezed the back of her Ani’s neck gently as he followed behind her. 

They walked out to the front room of the shop where two men waited. The men were built strongly and had (badly) hidden guns. Gang members looked like that.  They looked at Shmi and Anakin with a laser eyed intensity. Anakin shifted, uncomfortable.

One of the men, the older one, gestured at them both as his mouth stretched painfully to the shape of a smile.

“We’ll just check them over first, and then give you the money.” The words had a film of fake-friendliness as he stared with greed in his eyes. 

Anakin froze, peering up at the people who could be his new owners. He bit his lip.

The younger man went to Anakin and the older man went to Shmi. The men checked them over – probably to check they weren’t ill or dying. People didn’t want to buy an ill slave.

The younger man nodded at the older man. The older man smiled slimily at Watto again and went towards him as he pulled out a wad of cash from his pocket. The other man grasped Anakin’s arm roughly, gestured at Shmi to stay, and dragged Anakin outside to an old van and proceeded to open the back. When the man turned away Anakin frowned at him.

The van doors opened to reveal a gate – likely to stop the people locked in the van from escaping.

Keys clinked together as the man got them out of his back pocket and unlocked the gate. He manhandled Anakin into the cage, locked the gate behind him and slammed the van doors shut. The van fell into darkness. 

Anakin stumbled and almost fell but caught himself in time. He glanced around with large eyes at the others in there – it was too dark to really see them, but he knew they were there. He carefully stepped off to the side and settled down on the dusty floor of the van, near a man. He curled up small, leant on the dirty walls, and waited. He’d never been without his mama for long; he wanted her with him. What if the men were hurting her?

The van was silent other than the rasp of the other slaves and the soft whimpers of a child that a man was carrying. Anakin watched the man press kisses to his child’s forehead and wished for the men to hurry and bring his mama here, with him. They might be hurt by the new owners, but they would be hurt _together_.

The two men that bought were him laughing and joking outside the van in a language that he didn’t know. The van doors opened and the light blinded him, but he could still hear the click of the cage lock open. There was the sound of someone stepping into the van - or being shoved in. With a click the gate was locked and the van doors were slammed shut for the second time.

Shmi squinted in the near darkness before finding the hunched up shape of Anakin. She walked carefully to her son, trying not to step on anyone. She sat down for only a moment when the van engine started.

Anakin cuddled into her as the van started moving. She curled an arm around him and used the other to stroke his hair. From where they sat in the near silence in the back of the van they could hear the two men laughing and joking around in a language neither of them knew.

Anakin thought that their laughter was the worst thing of all. 

* * *

 

They had been moving for a long time when the van stopped. Anakin could hear the crashing of ocean waves nearby. He smelled salt in the air from the ocean. Shmi had told him that the ocean tasted salty too – why would water be salty? The scent of urine from the inside of the van was strong; the men hadn’t let them out for toilet breaks. Anakin liked the smell of salt better.

The engine stopped. The men in the front had been chattering the whole journey, but there was a new voice now. 

He could hear the men and the other person talking in Arabic.

“Put them in a container, quickly, the ship is being loaded already.”

The two men agreed and Shmi tensed, resting a hand on Anakin’s back. 

The van doors were flung open. They flinched from the light; even the dim light of the sunset was too strong for the humans crammed into the van. The cage door was opened and the men started dragging people out. One of the men, Anakin couldn’t see which one, as he was blinded by the light, grabbed hold of the back of his shirt and practically threw him out of the vehicle. The man shoved Shmi out too. 

They were lead to the pile of containers.  Shmi rested a hand on Anakin’s shoulder as he walked in front of her. 

A massive cargo ship was the only ship docked, and there was an open container packed with old newspapers that stank of vomit. Everyone was crammed into it – no one protested, not when the men had guns. Inside, everyone had a small plastic bottle filled with water thrown at them - even the children. 

The slavers didn’t want them to die - after all, they couldn’t make money if the humans they were selling _died._

Shmi sat down in a little patch of newspaper. Anakin sat down beside her. He looked at the men who were talking to each other in a language he didn’t know. One of the men gestured to the doors and the other nodded. They were going to close the doors. Anakin took one last glance of the outside, of the patchy grass and sand, of the dock workers that were ignoring the people being trafficked. The doors slammed shut and again, they were left in suffocating darkness. Quite literally, as the smell of vomit seem to only get stronger with every breath. 

They were left there for some time, Anakin didn’t know how long, until the whole container shuddered. Anakin’s stomach threatened to throw up as the container was somehow lifted up into the sky. He quickly turned towards his mother and wrapped his arms around her and pressed his face into her ribs. Shmi clutched him back, her face resting in his hair, and the two water bottles rested uncomfortably between them, too precious to lose. 

The floor and walls swayed and one of the men started to sob quietly.

After several long moments the container was put down with a shudder that everyone in it could feel. 

Anakin started to cry quietly, without tears. He took shuddering breaths as Shmi laid gentle kisses on his hair. She took the water bottles and put them in the waistband of her skirt to stop them from rolling away and picked up Anakin and clutched him closer to her. She rocked gently back and forth, rubbing his back with her hands, trying to sooth him. Shmi cried too, her hands trembled and she muffled sobs into Anakin’s hair, and he only clutched her tighter, trying to hug to pain out of her soul, their souls. 

* * *

 Shmi startled into consciousness as the ship’s horn went off. Anakin, somehow, slept through it as he cuddled up to her in his sleep. The smell of the container had gotten even worst, with the smell of vomit being overwhelmed by the smell of urine and shit. 

The ship had stopped and Shmi waited until she could hear the sound of seagulls and other people outside the container before she woke her son. 

He made the soft humming sound he always made when he was awoken too early and she dearly wished she could see his sleepy expression - he was adorable when half asleep. He sat up and buried his face into her neck and she smiled at him adoringly. He felt her smile and he smiled back at her, face still buried into her neck. 

It wasn’t long until the container shook as it was lifted into the air again. They could only wait as the container was moved and then put back down. Nothing else happened for awhile – or too long. The people inside waited nervously for the doors of it to open again, but they never did. 

Anakin wondered if the men forgot them. 

Shmi tilted her head to the side as she listened to the noises outside. There was a slam of a door. The engine started – it hummed from the front of the vehicle. Shmi put her arm around Anakin’s shoulders. She was incredibly hungry. There was a constant ache in her stomach now, and she could hear the grumble of Anakin’s stomach too.

* * *

 The vehicle finally, finally stopped. Was this where they would stay? After half a minute or so the door nearest Shmi and Anakin opened. They were blinded by the light again. There was someone else there instead of the two men and this man was looming over the opening. He tossed a bottle of water and two bars of some type of food to each person, even the children. He clearly did not want them to die - Anakin wondered how much money they were getting in exchange for them. He caught his food and drink when it was dropped and Shmi did too. 

The man didn’t react when he saw the dead body of the baby that one of the women was holding. In her starvation on the boat her body had stopped making milk, and since no one else was nursing the baby starved. He just simply shut the door and locked it again, leaving them all in darkness.

* * *

 They had been on the vehicle for days.

They didn’t starve, like on the boat. The man seemed to give them food and drink everyday or every other day, Anakin didn’t know which. The man had given them food ten times and either way the container stank. They still had not been let outside and even though on the second time the man had opened up the back he had given them a toilet bucket he had emptied it only once. It also stunk of death, a smell that curled inside you and didn’t go away, as the baby’s body was still there, inside the container. 

Anakin had, through the other smells, started smelling the salt of the sea and he wondered if they were going back on a boat. 

How far away were they going from home?

* * *

 Anakin was right in the end.

They were going back on a boat, for longer than the last time they were on one.

The man had opened the door and stated, “This is the only food you’re getting for awhile.”

In Arabic and English, after he had given them back filled water bottles - then given them _ten_ bars of food each. He had also emptied out the bucket again, but Anakin thought that wouldn’t help the smell much. 

The man had also seemed to notice the dead infant and had ordered the mother to give them body to him. She had, shakily, and he had taken it. He then closed them in again. Anakin didn’t want to go back on a ship ever again.

He doubted if he would ever have the ability to make that choice.

* * *

 They had been on the ship for days and days. Both Anakin and Shmi had eaten and drank half of what they had. How long were they going to be on this ship? Would this journey ever end, would they ever get off the ship? Anakin wanted to see the blue sky above him again.

His mum had made him stretch after every time he ate. Shmi would stretch too. He just wanted room to move in and light to see in – like most people already had. Anakin doubted that the people who took them here, wherever here was, thought they were people in the first place.

* * *

 They were loaded onto _another vehicle_ after the boat had stopped. Anakin thought it was a truck.

What was the most interesting thing in this was the fact he could hear other people and vehicles. A _lot_ of other people – like it was a marketplace or something. When the truck started moving he could only hear the sounds of the other vehicles, as they were driven away to somewhere. 

* * *

 The truck had already stopped, even though they had not been travelling long.

Suddenly, the container was picked up yet again but before Anakin had the time to react to this they had already been set back down on what seemed to be solid ground. 

Shmi sat up at this and carefully moved Anakin so he sat by the left of her, further away from the doors. 

After several seconds of Shmi and Anakin staring at the doors there was a clunk, and they opened. There were several people standing around the doors and the person who had opened them gestured for them to get out of the container. Shmi gracefully stood while Anakin scrambled up. Everyone stood on shaky legs as they looked at the person the other people were looking to as the leader. 

“You, go over there.” She commanded, pointing to a slaver and the woman that she pointed at reluctantly walked over there. This continued on as the group got smaller and smaller.

A child, younger than even Anakin, cried when they were separated from their mother. They tried to hold on to their mother but one of the slavers slapped the child and dragged them away. 

The adults were separated into two groups and Shmi was pointed to the larger one. She softly squeezed Anakin’s shoulder and whispered quietly to him,

“It’s alright Ani. Remember I love you, and be strong Ani, I love you so much.”

She went to turn and give Anakin a soft kiss on his forehead but she was forced away from him by a slaver.

Anakin was directed to the smallest group. There were three of them – three children. They were lead away from the others. Anakin tried to turn, to look at his mother one last time, but the slaver behind him shoved him forward. He stumbled, almost falling, but caught himself and carried on walking. 

He saw a glimpse of what could be his mama’s top before was walked through the door of the nearby building, stopping him from seeing outside. 

There was a man just standing there, looking at them. A slaver walked to him and started talking quietly to the man. The man smiled. 

It wasn’t a nice smile. 

He gracefully walked toward the three children. When he was about a meter away from the group he stopped, and looked at them all, dispassionately. The youngest one, a little girl, got a frown. The other one got an uncaring stare. And Anakin - Anakin got a smile. 

The man turned to the slaver and spoke in English, “The blond boy will do well.”

The slaver smiled gladly, and one of the guards pushed Anakin forward until he was standing next to the man. He looked at Anakin, examining him, before lightly stating to the guard,

“Clean him up for me.” Before he turned to the slaver and said “Let’s discuss price.”

The guard pushed Anakin away towards one of the doors and he saw that the others were being pushed back outside, to the adults. 

He wanted his mother with him. 

Inside the door was a large tiled area - like Watto’s shower but larger. 

The guard looked at him.

Anakin swallowed.

"Take off your clothes.” He demanded pointing at Anakin’s filthy clothes. 

Anakin didn’t want to - he really didn’t - but he’d been taught too well not to obey people with power over him. 

His hands shook as he unbuttoned the buttons on his top before pulling it off and dropping it on the floor. He froze then, and looked up at the guard through his eyelashes. The guard just frowned down at him impatiently. 

Anakin bit his lip and knelt down to pull his shoes off. He put them down by his top. He curled his fists for a moment before slowly opening his trousers and letting them fall down. He stepped out of the dirty clothes and kicked them towards his other clothes. 

Anakin stopped again and glanced at the guard. He just started back at Anakin with dead eyes before pointing at him and harshly demanding him to hurry up or else.  Anakin was truly terrified now, but hurried up to prevent the guard from becoming angry. He pulled down his underwear with shaking hands and dropped it on the floor. 

Anakin shivered in the room. It seemed so much colder than it was earlier. Goosebumps rose on his skin. 

He was pushed towards the drains on the floor and was shocked by the freezing water that started pouring over him. He looked at the guard, squinting through the wet hair covering his eyes. The guard handed him a red bottle and he just looked back at him, confusion twisting his face.

The guard sneered and rolled his eyes. “It’s just soap, kid." 

Comprehension dawned on Anakin’s face as he looked at the bottle again. He thoroughly scrubbed his hair, until the shower water ran clear instead of grey.  He scrubbed himself down, until the stench of the journey here came off with the dirt. He saw that his ribs stuck out a lot more than they did, at Watto’s.

The guard threw a thin, ratty towel at him as he stepped out of the shower. The guard’s eyes never left him as he dried himself. 

A different person strode into the room then, not even sparing a glance for Anakin - standing naked on the cold grey tiles of the room. 

"Clothes from the customer - Also, Al, make sure he’s polite.” The man commanded before walking about the room as quickly as he came in. 

The guard, Al, raised his eyebrows before holding out the clothes to Anakin. “You heard him. Dress, boy." 

Anakin took the clothes with a shaking hand. He quickly pulled the clothes on. There was no shoes for him - and the top he was given kept sliding off his shoulder. 

The guard gripped Anakin’s shoulder hard and looked at him with cold eyes. "Now, boy.” He said, “Don’t talk back, don’t be rude, and do whatever we ask of you. We can make your life very nasty when we try, kid.”

Anakin, who tensed when the guard touched him, trembled at the words. He nodded, looking at the floor. He didn’t - he couldn’t - fight back. He curled a fist into the fabric of his trousers and wished for his mother. 

The guard used the hand on Anakin’s shoulder to make him walk forward. 

Anakin took several short breaths. He clutched the trousers harder as he tried to hide the fact his hands were shaking - that he was shaking. 

* * *

 It seemed like they’d been walking for ages until they got to a door. The guard stopped. Anakin glanced up at the guard through his eyelashes. He noticed the door, while being grey like everything else in the building, was sturdier. More expensive. 

The guard rapped on the door. 

“Enter!” Came from within. 

Anakin hunched his shoulders up as the guard opened the door and pushed him in. 

The man from earlier was there. He was smiling warmly at Anakin from where he sat. The guard’s boss, the head slaver was sat near the man, also smiling. That smile was not warm. 

Anakin was pushed to the middle of the room, near the man.

The head slaver gestured at him. “A healthy child - as you can see. Clean too. The agreed price-”

The man cut him off, “Will be paid, of course.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out notes. He gave them to the slaver.

The slaver nodded at him and opened out the bundle of money then counted it out. When satisfied, she nodded to the man. 

“I’m sorry to keep you for so long.” She stood up and shook the man’s hand. He smiled back at her. He grabbed Anakin by the shoulder, making Anakin walk beside him as he left the room.

* * *

 The sun shone into his eyes, making him squint and he stumbled. The man forced him to keep walking along. The man looked friendly. He looked happy, too. It was likely he only looked so happy because he had what he wanted – a slave. He was like Watto, smug, after buying merchandise for a good deal - just less obviously. 

Anakin was pushed into the back of a waiting car. The car was white and its windows were tinted.  The man followed him in, his hand letting him go for the short time it took him to sit and no longer.

The man looked at him. “What is your name, child?”

“Uh,” Anakin stuttered nervously. “Anakin Skywalker.”

The man raised an eyebrow. “Skywalker? That’s too foreign for you to have.”

He smiled at Anakin’s flinch.

“I am Sheev Palpatine. You will call me master inside my home, boy, and call me father any other time. Of course, I will only allow you outside _if_ you obey _me_.”

His hand moved up and began to pet Anakin’s hair. Anakin cringed away from him and tried to turn away but Palpatine’s other hand flew up and grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at Palpatine. Held with a bruising Anakin could only stare with wide eyes.

“You don’t understand _– you will obey me!”_ Palpatine hissed. His hand dropped down to Anakin’s neck and squeezed.

Anakin screwed up his eyes and flailed – trying to push the man away from his throat. Instead, Palpatine pressed down harder and pushed him down against the seats, pinning him there. With the other hand he struck Anakin in the stomach.

Anakin gasped, stars in his vision.

“Stop fighting me _, boy.”_ The man growled.

Struggling against every instinct in his body, Anakin made his hands drop to the leather seats.

Palpatine did not let go.

He waited until Anakin was crying, eyes blurring with tears, hands clenched into fists until he loosened his grip. Anakin coughed violently and stared up at Palpatine with teary, reddened eyes.

“Look what you made me do.” He said quietly, as he ran a hand down Anakin’s face.

He used an arm to scoop up the boy and place him on his lap. He leant over and opened the soundproof divider between the backseats and the driver of the car.

“Drive back.” He commanded and shut the divider again. He wrapped his arms around the small boy trembling on his lap.

The car engine purred to life.

* * *

They arrived at a very large house – a mansion, really. Palpatine – why did he want to be called father? – climbed out of the car. With a glance from him, Anakin quickly scrambled out and followed him.

The front door of the mansion opened when they approached it. A man stood in the doorway.

“Maul.” Said Palpatine. It didn’t sound like a greeting.

“Did you get what you wanted, sir?” Greeted the man – Maul.

“Yes. Get out and do your job – I’ll ask for you if I wanted you.”  

Maul seemed to twitch at Palpatine’s words. He stepped back to let them in and walked back outside and quietly shut the door behind him.

Anakin’s eyes danced around the room. It was heavily decorated. The things all seemed to be so expensive. They looked like they cost so much money Anakin shouldn’t even have glanced at them. A painting of a battle caught his eye more than the glittering vases and the _flowers_ inside _them._ It was a painting of a bloody war – Anakin wanted to step closer but he didn’t dare. A word from Palpatine caused him to look away.

“If you try to talk to anyone here they will not listen. They’re trained better than that.”  He strode away, clearly expecting Anakin to follow.

Anakin did.

Palpatine entered a bedroom – a very large, grand bedroom. He walked up towards a stretch of empty wall. Anakin frowned at Palpatine’s back, confused. – Until the panelling of the wall _swung open_ at a touch _._

Palpatine walked on inside.

The room inside was painted cream and had another door that Anakin could see. He tilted his head slightly and tried to look into that room. It looked – it looked like a bathroom. Anakin frowned. He turned his head to look at the room he was in.

There was a small bed.

A cold shiver went down his back and he stepped back without thinking, his eyes darting to Palpatine.

The man turned and smiled at him. “No one knows you’re here. Only my staff are here and they would never help you.”

Anakin bit his lip.

“Be good and I _might_ let you out. If you’re not – I could do _anything_ to punish you.” Palpatine grinned at Anakin – an ugly, vicious grin.

Anakin looked down at the floor, only to look up and see Palpatine was closer to him than he was before – much too close. Palpatine reached out and pulled Anakin even closer, and wrapped his arms around him. Anakin stiffened.

“Anything.” Palpatine hissed as his hands trailed downwards to Anakin’s lower back – to Anakin’s ass.

Anakin flinched. He was so scared it was hard to breathe – but Palpatine only smiled and stepped back.

He pet Anakin’s hair and turned away and walked straight out of the room. The fake-wall shut behind him. There was of a click a lock and Anakin was stuck inside there. He at least had the light on the ceiling – he’d heard of places where slaves didn’t even get that.

That didn’t comfort him.


End file.
